Gatehouse E03: Following Suit
by thejollydoctor
Summary: After finding River Song's diary in the Library, Jenny and Roland go on their first off-planet adventure in search of the Doctor. Along the way Jenny discovers that the Doctor has many forms- not just the skinny man in a suit she was expecting- and that it can be extremely dangerous to meddle with someone's timeline.
1. Chapter 1 and Prologue

**Prologue**

"Hang on! Start over. Slower this time." Roland tried to calm Jenny down by gripping her shoulders. He had just got back from a trip to his parents' house to find Jenny panicking in the laboratory. "You saw a _what _in the vortex?"  
Jenny shrugged Roland's hands away and bounced in place as she excitedly told her tale. "There was a paradox! It made the vortex look like storm clouds, and the module detected it too. The readings rotated and looked like bubbles instead of squiggly lines."  
"Like bubbles?" Roland repeated. Jenny nodded in reply, biting her lip. "That is odd. So you want to investigate?"  
Jenny nodded again. "The last time I saw bubbles like that was after we were separated in the vortex. There was an alien hand in a weird jar of fluid and it bubbled when I was near. Now, the vortex certainly wasn't reacting to me. It never has before. So what if it was detecting my dad? He is the only other one like me-"  
"Jenny!" Roland interrupted. "You're rambling again. Please, just calm down, grab a jacket, and we'll go see for ourselves, okay?"  
She grinned and wrapped her arms around his neck in a tight squeeze, forcing him to bend over a bit to match her height. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" she squealed as she ran off to borrow clothes from Roland's closet.  
When Jenny returned she was wearing one of Roland's white button-up shirts with a black denim jacket. They had an over-sized appearance on her which contrasted nicely with her usual leather pants and black lace-up boots. "Note to self," Roland thought. "Take Jenny clothes shopping sometime."  
Inside the shuttle, Jenny squeezed past Roland and hopped into the large captain's chair. The cockpit took up more space than the back of the ship did, leaving little room for Roland. The large red round things lining the walls didn't help much either.  
Fortunately, it usually didn't take long for them to reach their destination and Roland was able to hop out first. This time they had landed in a marketplace. Roland didn't know where or when exactly, but he guessed they were still in Europe, some time very long ago.  
Foods of a large variety filled baskets all around them, and hundreds of tapestries were hung out for everyone to see. Roland saw a flower stand and grabbed Jenny's hand, pulling her towards it. "I've never seen so many flowers in one place," he said. "Look at this!"  
Jenny smiled as she examined the flowers, but Roland could tell her mind was somewhere else. "What are you thinking, Jenny?"  
She looked up, as if waking from a dream. "Hmm?" She shrugged. "Oh, I was just thinking about that paradox. I thought the vortex would take us to the source if we traveled through it, but evidently not. Did you see it? It looked as normal as ever."  
Roland frowned and studied Jenny's expression. "I know what's wrong here. You're _dadsick_." He wrapped an arm around her shoulder and said, "You know what? I think we should go back to the Gatehouse and keep trying new locations until we find him. What do you think?"  
"I'd like that," Jenny agreed, and they walked back to the shuttle.

**Chapter One**

"Clearly we're not making any progress on Earth," Jenny said, matter-of-factly. "We should try somewhere else." It had been five hours and sixteen locations since Roland promised they would look for her father, and they hadn't found anything that implied the Doctor even existed at all. "His friend Donna said he travels the universe. Is there any way the IRCM can be programmed to go to other worlds?"  
Roland blinked and stuttered. He had no clue, but he couldn't just tell Jenny that. "Let me see. This might take a while," he said instead. He looked at the module and examined every inch. Usually, when they were just traveling to Earth, he simply used arrow keys and a number pad to enter Earth coordinates. "What would happen if I entered universal coordinates?" he wondered.  
He decided that it was worth a try and entered coordinates for the first place that came to mind. There had been a mysterious incident surrounding this place about a millennia ago, and if he knew Jenny, it was just the sort of place she or her father might go. He set the coordinates to the approximate time the historians estimated the incident to have occurred and pressed the activation button. The time window showed the swirling vortex on the other side, and there seemed to be a light at the end.  
"Is it working?" Jenny asked hopefully. It almost wasn't a question.  
"It appears to be. The module isn't showing anything out of place."  
Jenny stepped forward to get a better view of the vortex and glanced back at Roland. "Where are we going, then? Random coordinates or a specific planet?"  
"A specific planet. It was the last location I studied in my universal history course in college. Evidently there was a big event back in the 51st century. Sounded like the sort of thing your father might be involved in, so I thought we should check it out."  
Jenny grinned and stepped into the shuttle. "You're not going to tell me what it's called?"  
Roland climbed in after her and buckled himself in. He didn't normally, but Jenny was getting so impatient that her piloting was reckless at best. "Where would be the fun in that?" he asked. "I thought you loved mysteries."  
The shuttle started up and Jenny grinned. Despite her impatience she managed to keep a positive outlook on the situation. She did love mysteries, she admitted to herself, and the longer it took to reach a conclusion, the more satisfying that conclusion was. Surely the quest to find her father would be just the same.  
Emerging from the vortex, Jenny saw that they were in a large room with marble columns and walls lined with books. There were so many books, in fact, that some had been stacked on tables or even the floor. It was daytime in this enormous library, and light flooded in through a round window on the ceiling above them.  
As they stepped out Jenny heard voices in the distance. It sounded like a crowd exiting the building, and after walking ahead to see the source of the noise, she saw that people were leaving in teleports. Was it closing time already?  
"Why is everyone leaving so early?" Jenny wondered aloud.  
Roland shrugged and turned to look around the room. "If I remember correctly, everyone in the library vanished a century ago, and then they reappeared today. If I went through something like that, I'd want out of here fast."  
Jenny frowned in thought and followed Roland into another part of the library. "Why do you suppose they disappeared?"  
"No clue," Roland admitted. "If we find your dad maybe we can ask him."  
Just then Roland heard voices come from above them. To their right was a staircase leading to a higher level. His eyes traced the banister until he saw two figures on the level overhead; a man and a woman. The man looked strangely familiar, even though he could've sworn he'd never seen him before. He nudged Jenny in the arm and pointed.  
"That's him!" Jenny said. She bolted up the stairs after him, but when she reached the top the man and woman had already walked away. She peered around the corner, but no one was in sight. Her eyes darted to the banister in front of where they had stood and she saw that there was a blue book with a strange device sitting on top of it. Stepping forward, she recognized the device as similar to the one her father had used on Messaline.  
She picked it up just as Roland reached her side and she rolled it over in her hands. It was a 7-inch grey and copper tube with a black base. On one end was a bulb and a thin, clear pipe was attached to the side of the device by a copper ring. "Roland, do you know what this device is?" she asked.  
Roland held out his hand and Jenny gave it to him. Pointing it away from both of them, Roland pressed a button on the side and the small bulb on the end lit up blue. Nothing else happened. "I'm not sure," he replied, "But it's sonic, whatever it is."  
Roland looked over at Jenny, who had picked up the blue book and started reading it. The book was worn and the pages had yellowed. Rather than the fine print that was more common in the 51st century, Roland observed that the book had been hand-written and illustrated. It was a journal of some sort. As Jenny read on, her eyes grew wider and Roland couldn't help but ask what the book said.  
"It's a diary, by a woman named River. Listen to this: 'It all began in the autumn of 2011, back when I lived in Leadworth and everyone called me 'Mels'. I stole a car and followed my parents, Amy and Rory to a cornfield just out of town. The Doctor had landed his TARDIS there. I knew he had and I wanted to meet him. Needed to meet him, more like.'"  
Roland peered over Jenny's shoulder at the page as she continued reading. "'The police were hot on my tail by the time I caught up with them, so I had no choice. I pulled a gun on the Doctor and said I wanted to go see Hitler. The TARDIS is a time machine, after all, so why not?'" Jenny looked up at Roland. "Who's Hitler?"  
"An ancient warlord. Very, very bad man. Killed lots of people."  
Jenny frowned and looked back at the page. "Is this 'TARDIS' the ship you talked about?"  
Roland nodded. "You should've seen it. It was bigger on the inside! A blue box with whole rooms in it." He stopped talking when he saw that Jenny's eyes were slowly tearing up. "Hey," he whispered. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and directed her towards the shuttle. "We'll find him, you know. This diary might even help. What do you say we keep it for a while? This is a library, after all, and you're _supposed _to borrow books from here."  
Jenny smiled slightly at Roland's somewhat ridiculous attempt to cheer her up and wiped her eyes. Roland handed her the sonic device and she placed it in the inside pocket of the jacket she had borrowed from Roland. When they reached the shuttle, she climbed inside, with the diary still clutched in her right hand. "Let's go back to the Gatehouse," she suggested. "We can get a better look at the diary once we're there."


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

_"Outside the TARDIS, we discovered that the building we were in was actually Hitler's office (the Tardis listened to me- how sweet is that?) and we had saved the pathetic excuse of a man from a rather odd robotic vehicle called the Teselecta. It looked and behaved just like a man, so at the time we were all unaware that it actually had a crew of minitiarized people operating it on the inside._  
_Anyway, for some reason that idiot Adolf decided to put a ton of bullet holes in the Teselecta, even though it was obviously strong enough to survive being hit by the TARDIS. One of the stray bullets hit me, and I had to regenerate._  
_My new form is pleasing, I'll admit. I have a rather large head-full of hair, and I'm certainly more mature looking. I thought this at the time too, and I decided to go shopping for clothes to fit my new body, but not before I'd done my job._  
_ On my way out the door I kissed the Doctor with poisoned lipstick and carried on. Not like your usual run-of-the-mill shopping trip, though. I went to a posh restaurant after avoiding some Nazi soldiers and held up the patrons at gunpoint. Nobody gave me any trouble, and I got a very nice outfit out of it..."_

Jenny was sitting at the island counter in the Gatehouse kitchen, eating a banana as she read. River's diary was interesting, to be sure, but it felt more like a horror novel than a diary, especially once Jenny found out that River was conditioned to kill the Doctor from an early age. The woman was a psychopath of sorts and was engineered to be 'a perfect match for the Doctor'. As Jenny soon realized, this could be interpreted in more ways than one.  
"You've had your nose in that book for an hour," Roland said, hoping she wasn't absorbed to hear him.  
"Shhh!" Jenny hissed. "River's at a lake and she's about to shoot my dad."  
Roland was peering into the freezer and hit his head as he stood and tried to turn around. "Wha-? Ow!" He rubbed his head and peered over Jenny's shoulder. "'Lake Silencio, Utah 2011'... should we go there and try to help?"  
Jenny looked anxiously between the pages and Roland's face. "No... I don't know." she sighed. "It wouldn't make sense if he died now. This whole diary is supposed to be about him and I'm not even halfway through."  
Roland shrugged, unsure of Jenny's logic, and opened the freezer door again. "There's no point in trying to understand a person who doesn't even understand themself," he thought.  
The further she read in the diary, the more Jenny realized that River's story was closer to a romance than a thriller. River managed to break free of the Silence's conditioning and follow her heart, eventually marrying the Doctor. Jenny didn't know how she felt about this, but she knew that they were happy, and River soon recovered from her childhood trauma.  
"Roland," she called.  
"Yes?" he asked warily. He removed a box of pizza from the freezer and made sure his head was clear from any objects it could collide with.  
"River's my stepmother."  
Roland dropped the box of frozen pizza on his feet. "She's _what_?" He grumbled quietly as he bent to pick up the box. "What do you mean? She married the Doctor?"  
Jenny nodded slowly. "Yeah. It's actually a very sweet story. I don't understand a word of it, myself, but they seem very happy saving the universe together."  
"Sweet?" Roland pondered the word and tried to correlate it to the bits of the story he'd heard so far. "Is attempted murder a common thing on first dates for your species?"  
Jenny laughed. "It wasn't a date! Really, you should read the whole thing before judging them." She looked back at the book and read on, ignoring Roland's exasperated sigh.

_I told them today. My parents and the Doctor. They know I 'm Melody and I don't have to hide it anymore (Unless I meet their past selves, of course, which is more than likely to happen again). I must say they were all shocked, but it was reassuring news after their battle at Demon's Run. They thought they had lost me forever, and now they know that I will remain safe once the Doctor has found me._  
_The Doctor had one of those idiot grins on his face. He hadn't been expecting it at all, but I think a part of him liked me all the more for who I really was. Though that particular version of him hadn't married me yet, I think he had an inkling of a clue that he will have someday._

Jenny jumped up off the stool and shoved the book in front of Roland's pizza-stuffed face. "Look at this! River gives a precise location. Maybe we can go there and talk to my dad."  
Roland munched his pizza slice, staring expressionless at the page before pointing to the tray. "You sure you don't want something to eat first?"  
"_No_, Roland," Jenny groaned. "I don't even understand how you could be eating at a time like this!"  
Roland swallowed his bite and looked confused. "It's been seven hours since we last ate. How could anyone _not _eat at a time like this? Besides, it sounds to me like the Doctor has already suffered one personal shock at that point. Shouldn't we wait a bit?"  
"Hmmph," Jenny sat back down on her stool and sighed. "I've been reading this book for hours and this is the best time I found. If we wait, we might never find him!"  
Her sad look and crossed arms swayed Roland's opinion. Before he could second guess himself, he had put down his pizza and grabbed his jacket. "Alright then," he consented. "If we're going, you better get ready fast. This offer expires in ten minutes."  
Jenny responded with a huge grin and a kiss on the cheek. "Thank you!" she said as she ran to the shuttle. Before long the engines had started and she called. "Ready!"  
Roland shook his head and laughed. Jenny never needed any tools or accesories. She just hopped right into crazy situations with a smile. Sometimes it was dangerous, but she always came out okay.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

All was quiet in Demon's Run when they arrived. Not a person was to be seen in the entire base, and Jenny wondered what could have happened. According to River, the base was to be evacuated over the two days following the battle, but she hadn't expected them to clear this area so quickly.  
Jenny didn't know her way around the station very well, as River had neglected those details, so she had to guess their direction. She wound up circling the area a few times with Roland trudging along unhappily behind her before they made any major progress.  
At one point Roland knew they had gotten somewhere because they passed a couple of bodies that they hadn't seen before. The bodies in brown cloaks that appeared to have no heads. This disturbed Roland, especially when he saw that the heads were nowhere to be seen. "Has something eaten them?" he wondered.  
Jenny beckoned him to follow as she found the door leading into the room where the Doctor should be. "I think I've found it!" she exclaimed. The happiness in her tone faded out momentarily as she added, "There's the the body of the blue man River talked about."  
"Eugh." Roland tiptoed past the figure and tried not to look. He din't understand how Jenny could be so calm in a situation like this. "Why is it that there are always bodies wherever your father goes?"  
"Don't be ridiculous, Roland. There weren't any at The Library." Jenny approached the area where the TARDIS should have been. "I-It's not here. I don't understand."  
Roland reached out to put his hand on her shoulder comfortingly, but she turned around to face him before he could. "We should go back," she said sternly. "Maybe we can catch him before he leaves."  
"Jenny!" Roland acted surprised by her proposition. "It's not wise to cross your own timeline. Bad things can happen."  
Jenny scoffed and put her hands on her hips. "How would you know that? You'd never time traveled before we met."  
"_Everybody _knows that. It's been common knowledge since before time travel was invented." Jenny raised her eyebrow at him and he added, "There were films made about it."  
Jenny frowned and remained silent for a moment before making a decision. "Fine. We'll go back and read further in the diary, but if there are no other opportunities we will cross this timeline. You got it?"  
Roland nodded.  
"Good," she flashed her usual grin and headed in the direction they came from. "Let's go."

_I met the Doctor's first incarnation at 76 Totter's Lane today. We started to talk, but I heard a young woman calling him- by "Grandfather", no less! My hand leapt to the manipulator and I got out of there in a shot. That is a conversation I am not ready for yet!_

Jenny sat on the bed in her room this time, tired of sitting on the hard kitchen stools as she analyzed the diary's contents. She had found all sorts of unusual stories, some of them not including the Doctor; one such adventure being an encounter with Sontarans.  
"Jack mentioned regeneration," she said as Roland passed by her door. "I wonder if he'll ever explain it to me."  
Roland stopped and leaned on her doorframe. "Who's Jack?"  
Jenny put the diary down in her lap and looked up at him. "Someone I met while you were off hunting for ice crystals with my dad." There was a hint of disdain in her voice, and Roland identified it as jealousy.  
"Poor girl," he thought. She had missed reuniting with her father just because she was in the wrong half of the shuttle. "I don't suppose you'd like to tell me about it?" he asked aloud. "So far all you've told me is that it was an 'ordeal' and you went to multiple time periods."  
Jenny sighed and gestured to an armchair in one corner of the room. "Have a seat. This might take a while."  
As Jenny told the tale, she neglected to mention the uncomfortable feeling she had when she first met Jack. She skipped past the details of the Royal Charter wreck, simply saying that it crashed and they tried to save as many as they could, but she still teared up when she got to the part where Jack had pushed her onto the bosun's chair. She stopped for a moment and wiped her eyes as she resumed the story. "I thought he was dead after that, but he wasn't. Later that day when the sun had rose he materialized behind me. That idiot had set his vortex manipulator to the wrong time."  
"You okay?" Roland asked softly.  
Jenny sat up straighter and sniffed. "Of course I'm okay _now_. I wasn't then. I gave him a good punch in the arm to make sure he knew how angry I was with him." She picked up the diary and pretended to be reading it, not wanting to answer any more questions about the event. Roland didn't take the hint.  
"So... are you on good terms with him now or are you still upset?"  
Jenny lowered the book just enough for her to peer over the top at him. "We're okay I guess," she mumbled before resuming the diary.

_It's been a long time now, and I was unable to write it sooner, but I received an invitation at my prison cell to go to Utah in America on 22 April 2011. Odd, really. Why anyone would want me to go to Utah, I had no clue. Of course, it had to be the Doctor. He was wearing a Stetson when I arrived (God, what a terrible hat!) so I shot it right off his head. Before I knew it, we were by a lake. Like Silencio, in fact, and then I recognized it. This was the location where I shot the Doctor and supposedly killed him. He had invited me to watch his own death..._

"Lake Silencio..." Jenny recognized the name as a place the younger River had been. River crossed her own timeline! As she read on, she realized it caused no problems because the older River didn't interfere. "There's hope," she whispered to herself.  
The rest of the entry told about the picnic River had with the Doctor and her parents by the lake and the meeting they had with the younger Doctor in the diner. The older Doctor had mentioned going to Florida in 1969, so Amy, Rory and River decided that was what they were meant to do next.  
Jenny leapt out of her room and knocked rapidly on Roland's bedroom door. It was the middle of the night now, and she could hear Roland moaning angrily on the other side. When the door opened he was wearing a night robe over blue pajamas and glaring groggily at her. "What?" he croaked.  
"I found a good time to intervene and before you get angry you should know it's nearly five o'clock and lots of people are already awake at this time. Oh, and it's nighttime where we're going so you don't have to worry about that light sensitivity thing you get in the mornings..." Jenny didn't have time to finish before the door was closed in her face. "_Hey!_"


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

Two and a half hours later Jenny tried knocking on Roland's door again. When he didn't respond she cracked the door open and peeked in. Roland was sprawled on his stomach with one foot hanging over the side of the bed. "Too tempting," Jenny thought. She just had to. Besides, he was being kind of rude lately.  
She crept into the room and crouched down next to Roland. She leaned forward and reached for his foot. Checking to make sure he wasn't already awake, she pinched the bottom, just below his big toe, and ran out of the room.  
She watched quietly from just outside the doorway as Roland shot up into the air with a yelp. He pulled his foot back onto the bed and, not seeing anyone, peered over the edge of the bed at the floor. "Jenny..." he called warily.  
No response.  
"Jenny, I think we might have a bug problem," he said, a little louder this time.  
"A bug problem?" Jenny walked into the room and acted like she had just come from the laboratory. "What makes you think that?"  
Roland glanced back at the floor and began his tale. "Something was in here just now... and it bit me. On the foot. Just there." He raised his foot with his left hand and pointed at the red mark on the bottom with his right.  
"Well..." Jenny was about to fabricate a string of nonsense that wouldn't exactly classify as a lie, but she made the mistake of staring at his confused face too long and burst out laughing. "I'm sorry, I couldn't help it," she admitted, still laughing. "You were all sprawled out with your foot hanging over the side and you just looked so ridiculous."  
"Jenny!" Roland tried to scowl, but it had been a while since he'd seen her laugh, so he just huffed and waited for her to calm down.  
"In my defense," Jenny said, "you were rude to me when I knocked on your door earlier."  
Roland shrugged and looked down at his lap. "Ah. Sorry about that. Let's get some breakfast and check out that location you found." He got up and reached for his robe.  
"I've already had mine. You can eat yours in the shuttle, can't you?" Jenny said innocently.  
Roland sighed and picked up his jacket instead. "Sure."

_"It wasn't until shortly after we saw him again at the diner that I realized what it was all about. The Doctor had invited Amy, Rory, a younger version of him, and myself to his death, knowing that his past self wouldn't show up at the right time and we would have an adventure together. What I didn't know, was that the adventure was intricately tied into my own life. That is, until we went back to Florida on the 8th day of April, 1969..."_

Jenny read the entry to Roland as he set the coordinates on the time module. River hadn't said the exact location that they went to, only that it was a warehouse near Cape Kennedy, so Jenny and Roland agreed to set back the date a bit so they would have time to track them based on the details in the diary.  
When they landed in Florida Jenny's first impression was that it was very hot, despite it being just early spring. She removed her jacket and tossed it back through the shuttle door. She wouldn't be needing it anytime soon. "It almost feels as if this place is closer to the sun, though that's impossible."  
"You don't think aliens have something to do with the temperature do you?" Roland jested. "I wouldn't be surprised considering all the things River and your dad got involved in."  
"Hardly!" Jenny giggled as she closed the shuttle door. "I'm sure it's a naturally hot climate," she continued. "I've just never been to a place like this before. There's lots of little buildings. How do we tell which one is a warehouse?"  
Roland looked around. They had landed in an alley between two three-story buildings. At the end of the alley was a paved road surrounded by more large buildings, most with shops in them. At the corner of each block was an old-fashioned lampost. The town resembled the pictures he had seen of ancient New York, and he realized most cities must have looked the same in this century.  
"I...um. I think warehouses have less windows on the ground level," he replied. "So people won't see the storage units and try to steal them."  
"Great!" Jenny said excitedly. She grabbed Roland's arm just above the elbow and led him down the alley, walking briskly. "This should be easy."  
They walked down the sidewalk for several blocks, examining each building in turn to see how many windows it had and what was inside. There was one building that they thought for a moment might be a warehouse, but it turned out to be a nightclub. Jenny was curious about the strange display of Floridan culture, but the noise and lack of personal space bothered Roland and he convinced her to leave.  
"What was that unusual noise everyone was flailing to?" Jenny asked as they left the building.  
Roland glanced at her strangely as he realized she had never heard music before. She had been progenated only a few days before meeting him at the most, and she had never heard music in that entire time. "It's called music," Roland explained. "People listen to it for enjoyment; and that 'flailing' is called dancing. People dance to music if they like it."  
Jenny mulled the concept over in her mind. "Dancing...hm. That sounds fun. You'll have to show me how to do that some time."  
The road they were travelling along now led into a residential part of the town, so they turned a corner. A few blocks away from the residential area were more tall buildings which appeared to be less used. Jenny looked up at the street sign (she had been doing that frequently, wondering what the names meant) and saw that it had three names on it, because the road split in three directions. "Jefferson, Addams, Hamilton," she read aloud. That sounded familiar.  
When they reached the sign Jenny stopped walking and Roland turned to look at her. "What is it?" he asked.  
"Those words. I've seen them before. I think River mentioned them in her diary. Do you see a warehouse nearby?"  
To their left was a building with more windows on the second floor than the first. "That might be it," Roland guessed, pointing at it.  
Inside the warehouse it was dark, with very little light coming in through the few windows. Jenny and Roland stayed near the walls of the room so they could easily hide if they encountered River or the Doctor at the wrong moment. On the second floor they found a large box full of straw opened in the middle of the room.  
Upon further inspection Jenny saw that whatever had been inside before had now been removed, and seemingly recently as there was no dust around the box.  
"Why would your father want to come here?" Roland asked. His shoulders were hunched forward like those of a scared cat. Jenny smiled when she saw this.  
"You don't have to hunch, silly," she said before explaining. "There's nothing here to attack us. My father just came here to rescue a frightened girl. River said there was a apacesuit in this box when they were here, so we must have arrived too late." As Jenny spoke Roland looked over her shoulder at something behind her. He looked as if he was seeing a ghost.  
"Are you okay?"  
Roland broke his gaze with whatever it was as his attention switched to her. "Wh-what? Yeah, I'm fine. What were you saying?"  
Jenny looked at him curiously. "I was just saying we've arrived too late again. There should have been a spacesuit in this box but someone has removed it since then."  
"Did your dad do that?" He rubbed his arms anxiously and shivered as he looked at the empty box. Jenny followed his gaze. Her brow furrowed in thought and then she gasped. "What?" Roland asked.  
"He didn't," Jenny whispered. Her tone became dark and serious and she took another step towards Roland. "River didn't either and neither did their friends. Which means..."  
"Something else did," Roland moaned. He was looking over Jenny's shoulder again and this time Jenny turned to see what he was looking at.

Nothing.

No, wait. She was looking back at the box again, and Roland was standing on the other side ready to karate-chop something. That was...strange.  
"Roland, what are you doing?"  
He jumped and turned to look at her. "I was...er. I don't know. What am I doing over here?" He looked down at the box and then up at Jenny again. "Let's get out of here."  
Jenny nodded vigorously and grabbed his arm to run. Out in the night air she notcied that something felt different. Apart from her headache and slight nausea she also felt... lighter. She patted her jacket and realized River's diary wasn't in the pocket anymore. She must have dropped it in the warehouse, but when did that happen?  
Long, wrinkly white fingers reached out from the shadows to pick up the vivid blue book, but retreated when the crature they belonged to heard Jenny's footsteps approaching. She saw the diary on the ground, picked it up and left- never remembering that she had just survived a fight with formidable alien beings.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

102 AD, the Stonehenge; one of the most significant events of the Doctor's life. Nearly every enemy the Doctor had ever, or would ever, encounter was gathered in an attempt to destroy him, while a large number of his allies had worked together to lead him there. If ever there was a time when Jenny's arrival would count as a small surprise compared to the events unfolding around them, this was it; and Jenny would prefer to meet her father without giving him a dual heart attack.  
Roland had set the module to the proper date and time and activated the time window. On the other side of the frame the vortex was frothy purplish-blue, unlike the sharp purple they usually saw. Roland gave Jenny a concerned look, but she ignored it and hopped into the shuttle.  
"It's a twisted point in time," she explained when he asked why the vortex looked different. "It's just before a near-destruction of the universe that never actually happened. It's not a paradox per se, but there could be some complications in the vortex." She hopped into the pilot's seat after Roland closed the shuttle door. "You might want to find something to hang onto." She smirked at her own reference and started the engines. She had taken the liberty of reading ahead in the journal a bit. There were a few other events that she thought might be maleable, but this was the first and (hopefully) the simplest.  
It was a bumpy ride through the vortex. The spinning cloud-like tunnel around them slowed and reversed a few times before pushing the shuttle back. Time didn't want to let them through.  
"We're not going to be separated at different times in the universe again, are we?" Roland asked frantically. "Because I don't want to fight acid monsters and trudge through a freezing cave again."  
"Don't worry," Jenny grunted as she kicked the accelerator. She pulled up on the ship controls and nothing happened. They were stuck. "That's it," Jenny growled. "Full throttle." She increased every possible function on the shuttle and it eased forward a notch before sticking again.  
"Jenny, I think we should go back!" Roland's voice was full of fear and it squeaked slightly on the last word. "Please," he whispered.  
The engine sputtered on the shuttle and Jenny eased down on the speed, slowly turning off each function of the shuttle. Maybe the vortex was just resisting the pressure. If she turned the shuttle off, perhaps they could fall into the right time. But no, as soon as the shuttle was turned off the vortex spat it back through the time window, causing it to crash into the laboratory and stop just a few inches away from a computer desk.  
"Oops." Jenny cringed and peered over her chair at Roland. He was gripping the edge of his seat tightly, frozen with a stunned expression. "Are you okay?" she asked him.  
He looked up at her and, realizing his grip was leaving impressions on his seat, he relaxed slightly. "I'm fine," he fibbed. "We should... we should probably get out and clean up the mess."  
The half of the laboratory by the time window was all but obliterated and not much could be done for it. Fortunately no important equipment had been kept on that side of the room in case such an event as this were to occur. A few tables and several test tubes had been smashed and papers had been sent flying about the room when the force of the shuttle stirred the air.  
"I'm so sorry," Jenny said. Her head was tilted downwards bashfully while her eyes looked up at the mess. She pressed her right cheek with one finger and then let her arm drop to her side, a nervous tick she had developed over the past few days. Roland had once remarked about her cheek getting bruised but Jenny had no idea what he was talking about. She never even noticed that she did it.  
After a few moments Roland still hadn't said anything. He stood there analyzing the room silently. Jenny perked up suddenly and touched his arm. "Shall I clean it up while you get something to eat?" she suggested.  
"What? Oh." Roland seemed to have come out of a daze. "No, I''ll clean it up while you read River's diary. You need to find a different time because we are _not _attempting that again," he insisted.  
Jenny hugged him sideways and thanked him, her face buried in his jacket sleeve. "I honestly wouldn't know where to begin with this," she admitted when she let go of him. "How do you clean up broken glass anyway?"  
She hopped away, diary in hand, before Roland could say 'vacuum cleaner' and settled in the computer chair on the opposite side of the room. She propped her feet up on the desk and opened a drawer to reveal a bag of potato crisps that she proceeded to munch on while reading.

_"Finally! I've met all of the Doctor's past incarnations now. I have been pestering the Doctor to tell me more about them for the longest time, but he can be so stubborn sometimes. Eventually I decided to take matters into my own hands and see each of them for myself. It took some time and a great deal of memory-wiping, but at last I've done it..."_

"Roland..." She looked up to see that he was carrying a bundle of papers and walking around the room picking up more from the floor. "What's an incarnation?"  
He stopped mid-reach and looked at her curiously. "Incarnation? As in reincarnation? Why is River talking about an ancient religious belief?"  
Jenny tilted her head and crossed her arms. "I won't know until you tell me what it is."  
"'Reincarnation' is a belief that some people used to have that after death their souls would transfer to a new body sometime in the future that would develop new memories and have a separate life. 'Incarnation' is the word used to refer to one of those bodies," he explained. "So why do you think River's talking about that?"  
Jenny glanced at the pages and read ahead a little ways. "Oh. I imagine it has something to do with regeneration!" she said. "Maybe she'll explain how that works."  
Roland shrugged and resumed picking up papers while Jenny continued to read; this time, aloud.

"_When I met his first perona, I must say I was rather disappointed. He was somewhat boring, spending all his time hanging out with teachers. I mean, who does that? His second persona was even worse. We took quite poorly to each other, and he offered to take me to 'this cool place on Telos'. I saw right through that (and I hope he chokes on that recorder)._  
_ I liked his third incarnation. We had a lot to talk about. I won't bother stating it all here, because I will have much more important things to write on these pages..."_

There were pictures on the pages beside each paragraph and Jenny stifled a laugh when she saw the picture of the Doctor's third self. "I imagine their conversation was mostly about maintaining wildly curly hair," she said.  
Roland put down his stack of papers on the desk beside Jenny's feet and looked over her shoulder at the image. "I wouldn't be the least bit surprised," Roland laughed. He looked at the other pictures and pointed at a picture in the bottom right corner of the page. The picture was of a young blond-haired man with a cricket jumper and panama hat.  
"I know that one. That's the one I met when we got separated," he said. "You take after him a lot. You both have a..." He pointed to a spot near his nose to indicate a freckle but waved his hand dismissively when Jenny looked confused. "Nevermind. Just keep reading."

_"His fourth incarnation held a passion for scarves. He had a whole room of the Tardis dedicated to his collection, and he spent some time showing it to me. I think it's safe to say I won't be wearing scarves any time soon._  
_ His fifth self was nice, but rather plain looking. He had celery on his lapel, which is odd, but a bold fashion statement... if you can call it that. He seemed to have an obsession with the Eye of Orion, which I suspect is a nightclub of some sort._  
_ His sixth persona was utterly ridiculous. I must say I have a higher tolerance for my Doctor's hats now, as this man's appearance was like a clown put through a woodchipper. Not to mention his abrasive personality. As for his seventh self... well, I found him surprisingly Scottish."_

"What's 'Scottish'?" Jenny asked.  
Roland was pushing a strange tube-like device around the room now that seemed to make a faint humming noise. Wherever he moved it the glass on the floor would fly up into it and stay inside. He touched a spot on the side and the humming noise stopped.  
"Scottish is..." Roland paused to think. "I'm from Wales, and I'm called 'Welsh'. If someone is 'Scottish' it means they're from Scotland. Or, in this case, he seems as if he were Scottish, but he's not."  
"Well that's not confusing in the slightest," Jenny commented.  
"_Oh no_," Roland thought. "She's learned sarcasm. The world will never be the same again."

_"I'm very glad I had an opportunity to meet his eighth self. He had an appealing face, but what's more, I loved the very elegant and cultured style of the Tardis console room that he used. It's not very often that the Doctor has such good taste. Enclosed is a picture I took..."_

"Oooh! Roland come see this," Jenny urged. He was done vacuuming now, but he had to drop the leg of a desk before he could look.  
"Oooh. That's neat," he agreed. "What is it?"  
"It's called TARDIS. I don't know exactly what a TARDIS is, aside from the fact that it's a spaceship with dimensional transcendentalism, but I like it."  
Roland knew instantly that Jenny was understating her feelings about the ship. He had been inside a different Tardis interior and he was instantly overwhelmed by it. He adjusted fairly quickly because he was familiar with the concept, but nonetheless it was stunning.  
"Mhmm. I like it too," he agreed. "Maybe when we catch your dad he'll invite us inside."  
"Maybe," Jenny said with a smile.

_"My Doctor-viewing tour stopped with his ninth regeneration, when I made the mistake of mentioning the Time War. It set him off, and I learned very quickly that it was a bad idea to discuss it at all._  
_ Later, however, I finally got the chance to meet his tenth regeneration when we had a picnic at Asgard. It seems he had already met me, so I did not need to wipe his memories. I was pleased about that, because we had a very good time..."_

"The tenth one was my father. He talked about the Time War more openly, but I think it still hurt him." Jenny gazed down at the picture and stroke it with her thumb. "I suppose I won't get to see him again."  
"You don't know that," Roland said from across the room. "We could go to Asgard just before he's about to leave. I'm sure he'd be pleased to see you."  
Jenny shook her head. "There's no time. He leaves just before River does and she doesn't say anything about being interrupted. But... do you suppose we could watch them? From afar? If I'm not going to see him face to face again I'd at least like to get a glimpse." She looked up at Roland and saw that he was putting the last piece of the broken desk in a large bag. "There's no paradoxes or time distortion that might try to wreck the shuttle."  
"This got Roland's full attention. "You promise?"  
"Promise."


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

Asgard was beautiful. It slightly resembled the city of Norse mythology, but the spaceships and alien creatures were a notable difference. This was an advantage to Jenny and Roland when they parked their shuttle, but the fact that River and the Doctor had planned their picnic away from the main populous made it difficult for them to find a hiding spot.  
"It would be so easy to walk over and say hello," Roland said as they ducked behind a fountain. "Why don't you?"  
Jenny looked surprised. "You were the one that told me not to cross my own timeline! Now you're saying I should defy recorded history?" Roland shook his head. He wasn't entirely certain what she was talking about but it didn't sound good. "Right, then," Jenny said. "Stay quiet; they're just settling down."  
A few meters away River and the Doctor were laying down their picnic blanket in a grassy area. It looked like a standard picnic to Jenny- a cooler, blanket, two plates, and for some reason River decided to bring along tea lights. When she looked up at the sky she realized the sun would set soon and then it made sense. River wanted a romantic setting. She was unaware that the Doctor wasn't that familiar with her yet.  
"_How sad_," Jenny thought. "He doesn't even know her yet."  
When River lit the candles the Doctor looked at them with a bewildered expression. River seemed to catch a glimpse of this and decided to distract his attention from the uncomfortable situation with conversation. "How many times have we met before?" she asked.  
The Doctor looked up from the candles and stammered his response. "Only.. only once before, actually. In a library."  
"A-ah!" River cut him off. "Spoilers- haven't done that one yet."  
Jenny nudged Roland on the shoulder. "Did you hear that? He said 'library'. He's already been there, but that was the last place she took her diary to. What d'you suppose happened there?" Roland shrugged and resumed watching the scene.  
Conversation between River and the Doctor continued normally. They talked about places in the universe worth going to, alien races with funny habits and classical plays from various planets. At a point later in the conversation Jenny noticed the Doctor looking at River strangely. The look in his eyes was familiar, but she couldn't quite place it until Roland spoke.  
"You okay, Jenny?" he asked. "If this is upsetting you, we can go home. You don't have to watch if you don't want to."  
That was it. The Doctor had a look about him that expressed the very feelings she was having right at that moment. He was looking at River as if he had lost her but found her again, only to realize that he would lose her again someday.  
"River died," Jenny whispered.  
"What?" Roland squinted at Jenny. "She's right there. Alive."  
"No, she died in the Library. After this. That's why my dad's looking at her strangely." Jenny took the diary from her pocket and flipped to the last page. It was an account of an event at the Singing Towers of Darillium. In it, River said that the Doctor had dressed up nicely and cried a majority of the time, almost as if he were saying goodbye. "When I see my father again, I'm giving him back this diary," Jenny said. "It's rightfully his now."

Shortly after Jenny's realization, she decided to give the two time travellers their privacy. She got what she came for, and she was satisfied. From now on she would only chase after future versions of her father, not the skinny man in a suit she was used to.  
Back at the Gatehouse she continued reading, scanning the diary for mentions of the Doctor's Eleventh incarnation. "'The Bone Meadows'," Jenny read aloud. That sounds interesting. Oh, nevermind. Man-eating terrestrials." She looked over her shoulder at Roland, who was, yet again, eating pizza. "We don't want that, now do we?" She spoke louder to get his attention.  
"What?" he replied with his mouth full. He looked up from his plate mid-bite, causing the hot cheese on the pizza to seperate from the crust and fall on his bottom lip, burning it. "Ow-ouch-hah-hot!" he yelped.  
Jenny smiled and stifled a laugh. She enjoyed pestering Roland while he was eating. Every single time something funny happened. Usually he dropped things.  
"I said, 'we don't want an adventure with man-eating terrestrials', do we now?" she repeated in a slightly raised voice.  
"Eugh," Roland agreed. "If you're going to pick another time to go to, please make sure there are no murderous beings."  
Jenny laughed and swiveled in her chair. "I'll do my best," she said as she turned the page. "Ooh. 'Crash of the Byzantium'. That looks good."

_"Here I will record one of my greatest adventures to date. The Doctor was much younger this time, but he was no less the wiser. He managed to outwit one of the greatest foes we have ever faced: the Weeping Angels. According to history this event never happened; but for us time travelers it did._  
_ I was on the starliner Byzantium investigating their mysterious cargo when I discovered something rather shocking. Amongst the cargo they were transporting (off-record I might add!) was a Weeping Angel. It was presumed to be the last of its kind, but I was soon to discover that this was untrue..."_

Jenny clutched the book tighter as she continued reading. It reminded her of a mystery novel she had attempted to read a week before, except she had predicted the ending to that one three chapters before the detective even had a clue. With River's diary she never knew what might happen.  
The Weeping Angels certainly did seem like a formidable enemy, but it appeared to her that they mostly stayed together throughout the venture. If she and Roland could land at the correct time and follow behind the angels, they could wait out the storm and talk to the Doctor.

_"Weeping Angels are amongst the most powerful creatures of the universe. They are far stronger than any human could ever hope to be, and have even been known to overpower Time Lords. The peculiar thing about Weeping Angels is that they are statues. Living statues, as the Doctor often puts it. Whenever a Weeping Angel is being observed it freezes; stuck in a stone form. If they are not observed, however, they can move, very quickly. So fast, in fact, that if they are ten feet away and you blink, they might suddenly be snarling in your face..."_

She was about to tell Roland to hurry up and finish his pizza when she refrained herself and read ahead. If there was a safer adventure further along in the diary she knew it would be Roland's preference to try it first.  
The next potentially malleable adventure also had the Weeping Angels and this time they roamed all over a city called Manhattan. Jenny decided they best avoid it, since she intended to live to be _at least _a year old.  
After the Manhattan entry there was only one story, "The Singing Towers of Darillium", which seemed far too personal to interrupt.  
"Alright," she thought, "I've checked, so I can say it." She stood up and grabbed the device she had found in the library, a 'sonic screwdriver' as River had called it, and placed it in a pouch on her belt. "I finsihed reading the diary," she said loud enough for Roland to hear. He had gone into the kitchen to put his plate in the washer. "There's only one possible opening, but there are specific coordinates so we should be able to land in the right time and place. The only problem is that we'll have to land on a starliner pre-crash."  
Roland stuck his head out the kitchen door. "Pre-crash?!" he repeated. "Why can't we just go to the crash site?"  
"Because River didn't say where the site is- only the ship." She glanced down at the diary, hoping Roland was done asking questions, and read the page about the sonic device. It seemed to have nearly limitless purposes, except it couldn't manipulate wood of any kind. "It's quite useful," she thought. "I hope dad doesn't mind if I keep it."


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven**

_"The guards found me sneaking around, but not before I managed to burn a message for the Doctor in the ship's home box. When he would find it, thousands of years later, he would know to connect the box to his TARDIS monitor and watch the security footage. Then, he would hear me saying the coordinates of my location before escaping the guards by flying out the bay doors. He would then materialize his ship at __7775/349x10/acorn __just in time to pick me up before I exited the artificial atmospheric shell surrounding the ship. Clever, aren't we? I must say we make a very good team..."_

Roland set the IRCM to the coordinates River had specified and hopped into the shuttle after Jenny. He was anxious about arriving in the starliner before the crash, but Jenny insisted that the shuttle was durable enough to withstand it. "It feels like we were meant to go this time," Jenny commented as she started the engines. "Did you notice how she gave specific coordinates when she didn't have to?"  
She heard Roland sigh behind her but didn't bother to turn around. She knew what he'd say if she asked about it. That she was 'overly determined' and was taking the quest 'far too seriously' almost as if she thought it was 'destiny or some other hullabaloo'. He didn't understand instinct, so he certainly wouldn't understand hers in relation to time.  
They flew through the portal, landing in a cargo hold on the other side. The steady sound of the bigger ship's engines informed them that they had arrived at the right time, and also that they might want to plug their ears when the crash finally came.  
The two travelers remained silent in their seats as they anticipated the crash. Moments later nothing had happened. "Are you sure you set the time correctly?" Jenny asked.  
"I _may _have left a few spare minutes to allow you time to change your mind," Roland admitted. A pair of angry blue eyes peered over the shoulder of the captain's chair and he smiled nervously at them.  
"I hate waiting," Jenny's muffled voice replied.  
"Well, that's too bad." Roland pouted insincerely for a moment before making sure his seat belts were secure. Jenny remained glaring at him over her seat. "We're going to crash any minute now, you really should sit down in your chair," he added.  
Jenny huffed in response and plopped back onto the seat of the captain's chair. No sooner had she secured the belt than the steady rhythm of the engines ceased. Within seconds a sound like a cyclone surrounded them and the shuttle flipped upside down.  
"You okay, Jenny?" Roland asked when the noise had cleared. He was hanging upside down by his seatbelt and hoped that she was not stuck like himself.  
"Fine," was her quick reply, as she yanked her seat belt off and crawled below the chair that was now above her rather than beneath. She saw that Roland was still buckled in upside down and giggled. "Need any help?"  
He grunted and attempted to yank at his seat belt as Jenny had. Nothing happened, and he nodded with a sigh. "That would be nice, thank you. Next time make sure the artificial gravity is adjusted, okay?"  
Jenny smirked and unclasped the belt with River's sonic screwdriver. Roland fell to the ground and she helped him up with one hand. "Stay close by, okay? There are angry stone angels wandering through this ship and we'll need to stick together. River has mapped out its approximate location at all times, but there are others that will be here soon." She put the screwdriver back into a pouch on her belt and made sure the diary was secure in her pocket. Once she was set, she pushed on the shuttle door.  
It didn't budge. She pushed again, harder, but it only gave way slightly before something heavy on the other side pushed it shut again.  
"Is it an angel?" Roland asked in a panicked voice. "Please don't tell me there's an angel on the other side of that door. You said the only problem would be the _crash_."  
"Calm down, Roland. I'm sure it's just a crate. Come help me push it open!"  
He pushed up the sleeves of his jacket and leaned against the door with his full weight. Together they were able to push it open enough for Jenny to put her arm through. She felt the other side and, sure enough, a crate had fallen on the side of the shuttle. She pushed it as hard as she could with her free hand and the door gave way.  
The cargo hold was dark now that the lights had ceased to work ordinarily. The only thing that could be seen in the room were the shadows of the crates and a door with a small red light flashing above it. Jenny took the diary from her pocket and flipped to the entry about the Byzantium. "Looks like they stay outside of the Byzantium for some time, evaluating a threat from the cargo," Jenny said as she scanned the page.  
Roland leaned in to peer at the pages and his eyes widened. "Um, maybe we should've just looked up Alfava Metraxis coordinates," he said. "There's a whole army of Weeping Angels."  
Jenny continued walking to the door, ignoring his statements. She was determined to find her father, and if that meant fighting an army of angels, so be it. The door to the cargo hold was locked, so Jenny sonicked it open. She held up the map of the ship from River's diary and consulted it as she wandered through the corridors, Roland following nervously behind her. At any sign of a shadow or movement, he began to panic as he had in the shuttle.  
Jenny became frustrated with him after several minutes and blurted, "Roland, don't be a jackrabbit, Roland. River has the angel's location marked. It's on the complete opposite side of the ship!" She calmed down when she saw his fearful expression and patted him on the shoulder. "Things won't go haywire for a few more minutes. If we can get to the cybernetic forest by the secondary flight deck before then, we should be okay. There will be angels, but they won't be after us, and my dad gets rid of them all before then. In fact, they might not even be here now. River wrote that he erased them all from existence."  
Roland's expression changed from fear to confusion. "He _what_? Then how could she have written about it?"  
"I don't know," Jenny shrugged. "She says something about time travelers being affected differently by events like this."  
The two continued down the corridor in the direction of the secondary flight deck. Roland seemed partially assured by Jenny's explanation and attempted to hide any remaining doubts he had. The only obvious signs of fear remaining were his shaking fists and unconvincing smile.  
The path grew darker as they went on and the lights started to flicker. Jenny took it as a sign that they were nearing their destination and ultimate goal; Roland took it as a sign of impending doom.  
They managed to reach the door to the cybernetic forest before the Doctor or the angels arrived, and Jenny opened it with River's screwdriver. She marveled at the device with a wide grin once they were on the other side, safely concealed behind a tree. "The strange thing is, River is carrying this same device in the past, at this very moment."  
Roland sat down next to her and looked at the object in her hands. "Sometime you and me should have a discussion about time travel jargon. I can't understand most of what you've said over the past few days." He grumbled and removed a twig from behind his back, breaking off part of the bark on the tree to reveal its mechanical parts. "Ooh, that's nice," he said, looking at the cybernetics. "Do you know what this is?"  
"No," Jenny admitted. "Perhaps you and me can have a discussion about technical jargon sometime."  
Roland was about to reply with an explanation of the complicated cybernetics in the tree, when the sound of approaching footsteps echoed through the forest. Jenny hushed him and pointed at the door through which they had entered. River and Amy were approaching, accompanied by various men in military uniform. A moment later, the Doctor followed.  
Jenny noted that the clerics guarding Amy had a hazy, ghostlike hue to their appearance. It was almost like looking at a hologram, but they seemed to be entirely solid when they touched another person or object.  
Roland began to scan the surrounding area for angels, wary of becoming statue fodder. His eyes widened and he gasped when he noticed one staring at him, only a few feet away.  
Hearing his gasp, Jenny turned away from the view of her father and noticed the angel. She peered at it curiously, having noticed something strange about it. It, too, had a ghostlike image, slightly translucent and glowing with some kind of energy.  
"Blink," Jenny said suddenly. She had a theory, and there was only one way to test it.  
"What?" Roland wasn't sure if it was another random statement or an order.  
"Blink," Jenny repeated, still looking at the angel. "Trust me. Just **blink**."


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight**

Roland winced as he looked away from the angel, wary of what it might do. He wasn't sure why he was trusting Jenny with something so dangerous, but then, she had never let him down before. Jenny blinked intentionally the moment he turned away and was amazed by what she saw when she opened her eyes. Rather than being dead or transported as River had described, she was staring directly into the face of the angel and it's arm had passed through her. The angel could see them, but it could not interact.  
"That's fascinating!" Jenny exclaimed softly. Roland seemed perplexed by the development, so she continued to explain. "Don't you see? This part of time has been rewritten. It's happening, but it never did. It's a ghost of an event! It's technically here, even though it never was, and we are here, so it can see us; but because it was never here and we _are_, it can't affect us."  
Roland nodded, pretending to understand. She wasn't speaking in time jargon, exactly, but there were too many contradictions for his liking. "So... does that mean your dad is ghosty too?" he asked.  
"No," Jenny giggled. She looked up at her father, who appeared to be having a heated conversation with Amy and River. "He's a time traveler. He's always been here. See him over there? He's as solid as you and I. Some of those men aren't though. Evidently in one timeline they ceased to exist."  
Roland turned to look at the Doctor after making sure the angel had moved on. The way the Doctor moved as he talked reminded him of some of Jenny's subtler mannerisms. "You're extremely good at guesswork," he said with a smile. He didn't appreciate the risks she'd taken, but they'd paid off and he could hardly blame her.  
"It's not all guesswork. Some of it is what River says in the diary," Jenny corrected. She crossed her arms over her chest and shrugged. "The rest is just sort of... _instinct_."  
She smiled and tilted her head as she observed her father. He looked very different in this new form, much younger, but he was just as expressive when he talked and had the same caring nature for his companions. She wanted to shout out and get his attention as Roland suggested in Asgard, but she feared the results. She didn't know if she could interact with him yet, much less what the consequences would be if she did.  
A thought came to mind and she decided to perform one more experiment. She picked up a pebble from the ground and threw it in the direction of the clerics. The stone his the ground by one of the men's shoes, and he turned his head to see where the sound had come from. Jenny noted that she could interact with the clerics, even the ghostly ones. Perhaps the Doctor could hear her too. She watched as the Doctor, River and one of the military men, 'Octavian' according to the diary, headed to the primary flight deck.  
More and more angels began surrounding the clearing where Amy and the clerics were staked out. The angels took no notice of Jenny and Roland once they realized they couldn't touch them, and averted their attention to tearing apart the cybernetic trees. The lights in the forest began to flicker and the clerics began to panic. The lights went out completely for a moment before coming back on. When they did, the angels were nowhere to be seen. A bright light appeared from the direction of the secondary flight deck and the clerics were sent to investigate it. Jenny took this as her cue and went after the Doctor, gesturing for Roland to follow.  
It took several minutes for Jenny and Roland to catch up with the Doctor. The Byzantium was a large ship, and they had waited long enough to miss which direction he had gone. When they did, they saw River and the Doctor entering the flight deck, but Octavian was no longer with them.  
"What happened to him?" Roland asked as he looked around. "He was with them when they left, and we didn't pass him on the way here."  
"He's gone," Jenny replied bluntly. "He was 'ghosty' remember? He's ceased to exist permanently now." She watched as the flight deck doors closed behind River and the Doctor and tapped on the corridor wall impatiently.  
Roland was not as concerned about the circumstances, and looked at Jenny with bewilderment. "How can you say that so calmly? A person has stopped living suddenly, and you're acting as if he was just some extra in a film!"  
Jenny turned sharply and glared at him. "Sh! They can't know we're here, or there will be far worse consequences. We can't do anything about Octavian now. The angels got him and that's that."  
Silence followed her outburst and Roland averted his attention to listening in at the door. He had always thought Jenny was purely interested in good times and adventures, but now she seemed distant and cold-hearted. Her quest to find her father seemed to be affecting her outlook on events around her. All she cared about was reuniting with her father, and he had know way of telling what could happen after that. It was possible that Jenny would fly off with the Doctor in his Tardis and he would never see her again.  
The Doctor seemed equally affected by the strenuous circumstances, and was shouting at River for trying to get the teleport to work. He believed it useless, and was giving up hope on saving Amy. From the sound of things, Roland could tell that River ignored the Doctor and continued working on it. She proved that the Doctor was overreacting when Amy materialized in the room a moment later.  
"They saved Amy," Roland whispered. He glanced at Jenny, who showed no signs of emotion. "Of course," he added. "It's in the diary, so you already knew that."  
The power went out suddenly and the doors to the flight deck opened. Jenny grabbed Roland's shoulder and pushed him into a corner where they would remain unseen. Peering around the door frame, Jenny could see that a group of angels had appeared. Some of them were aware that Jenny and Roland were present, and watched them blank expressions.  
"Do you think we look like ghosts to them?" Roland wondered aloud. He was looking at the hazy shapes of the living statues and realized that, like them, they were not part of the original events either.  
Jenny was surprised by Roland's statement and mulled the idea over in her mind. It was something she never would have thought of, and while it was unimportant, it was an interesting concept. "Perhaps," she whispered. "Perhaps everything does."  
Inside the flight deck the lead angel was negotiating with the Doctor. It demanded that the Doctor throw himself into the crack that had created the light in the cyber forest in order to close it and free the angels. In return, they would leave his friends alone.  
"Roland," Jenny said sharply. "Hang onto something." He immediately obeyed her and braced himself for something awful to happen. He didn't know what, but when the ship suddenly lost its artificial gravity he thanked himself for having faith in Jenny despite her moodiness.  
A sudden burst of energy shot through the room as the angels fell into the crack in place of the Doctor, causing it to erase the beings from history and snap itself shut. The planetary gravity now replaced that of the ship, and the group were able to walk on the walls instead of the floor.  
"I'm sorry for snapping at you," Jenny said suddenly. She was not looking at Roland, and instead had turned to follow the Doctor out of the ship. "I just don't want you thinking we can change fixed events. I don't know much about time, it's true, but I do know that it's not something to meddle with."  
Roland scoffed and followed after her. "_Please_. That's all we ever do!"


	9. Chapter 9 and Epilogue

**Chapter Nine**

The weeping angels were gone, and it was quite possibly one of the most relieving moments of Roland's life. He and Jenny were climbing out of the starliner _Byzantium_, admiring the technology and craftsmanship of the spaceship. They did their best to stay far enough behind the Doctor and his friends to remain unnoticed, but it was a difficult task with Roland's clumsiness.  
After a long silence Roland cleared his throat and spoke up. "What are you going to do after you've spoken to your dad?" It was inevitable that she'd want to travel with her father, but Roland was unsure what that would mean for him.  
Jenny thought about the question for a moment, watching the silhouette of her father climbing out of the ship. "I suppose that depends on him," she replied carefully. "But if he's anything like the man he was, I'm sure he'd be glad to have us travel with him." She had only known her father for a day before being presumed dead, but she was confident that she had seen his true self in the last few moments before she was shot.  
Roland smiled at Jenny before continuing his endeavor to conclude the day's chaotic events. "And... you'll be okay with that? Traveling through the un-meddle-able thing we call time? You seem so certain that bad events can't be changed." He paused and looked down at his feet as he walked. "Is it because of that adventure you had without me? Did something go wrong while I was away?" He looked up to see that Jenny was walking quicker now to avoid answering him. "I'll take that as a yes," he sighed.

When they had reached the outside of the _Byzantium_, they saw that the planet consisted of a stony beach and a maze carved into a steep hillside. A camp of military clerics was set up outside the maze and were waiting for the return of the Doctor and his company. They were relieved to learn that the angels had been defeated, and were completely unaware that a group of clerics had ceased to ever exist inside.  
Jenny and Roland hid behind a boulder near the camp and watched as the Doctor said farewell to River. There was a flirtatious exchange between them and Amy teased the Doctor after River had teleported away with the clerics.  
"Now's your chance," Roland urged Jenny with a smile.  
She was visibly nervous, something that Roland had never seen before. Normally she remained cool and calm under pressure and fierce when faced with a threat. Now that she had a chance to speak to her father, the man she had been in search of for weeks, she froze.  
"Jenny, what's wrong?"  
She frowned and looked over her shoulder at Roland. "What if he doesn't want to speak to me?" she asked. "What then? I'll have come all this way only to be rejected."  
"Well if you don't go now, you'll have come all this way for nothing at all," Roland pointed out. "You're his daughter. I'm sure he'd be more than happy to see you again."  
He had a point. Jenny attempted to regain her composure and stood up behind the boulder. She was still concealed from the Doctor's view, but she could see him clearly. She placed one foot out and urged herself to run to him, but as soon as she'd stepped out from behind the rock, a feeling of dread filled her gut. It wasn't the anxiety she had felt before, but something entirely different. Something she had felt two weeks before when she had opened the vortex while Roland was away. It was the beginning of a paradox.  
Quickly she jumped back behind the boulder and crouched down low. She was panting and shaking all over, and hoping that she hadn't been seen.  
"What are you doing?" Roland's voice was filled with exasperation, and he attempted to push her back into the open.  
"No, stop!" Jenny cried. "I can't go out there, I had a premonition."  
Roland took a step back and looked confused. "Hang on... what does that mean?"  
Jenny watched with longing as the Doctor walked back to the Tardis with Amy. "It means he's not supposed to see me yet," she spoke softly.

**Epilogue**

"Hang on, sorry..." Jenny shook her head as they walked through the town. "Where are you taking me?"  
"A pub!" Roland replied gleefully. "We've landed in 40th century Ireland. Might as well have a look around. If there's one thing that I know about the Irish, it's that they've always had excellent pubs."  
Jenny smiled slightly at his giddy mannerisms, but the trace of red around her eyes and nose were still visible. Roland was bent on cheering her up in any way he could, and the Irish pub was his fifth attempt so far.  
"But what's a pub?" Jenny was curious, but hesitant to show excitement. If it was anything like the aquarium they had just come from, it would most likely remind her of Messaline and the time she spent with her father.  
"It's a drinking establishment!" he declared. He pushed open the door and held it so Jenny could walk under his arm. She was just short enough to do so without bending over too much.  
Inside the building were rows and rows of chairs around round tables. The floor was wood paneling and a stained oak bar was off to the left with iron stools in front of it. The room was filled with people.  
"Ooh, and old style pub!" Roland exclaimed. "You don't see many of these in the 61st century. Everything's all metal, glass and plastic."  
"Judging by the popularity, I'd guess it's rare in this century, too," Jenny shouted over the bustle. She followed Roland to two empty stools at the bar and sat down on the stool to his right.  
Roland leaned closer to Jenny so she could hear him. "Just one quick word of advice: if you order anything with alcohol they might ask you for identification. Since you don't have any, just order whatever you want 'virgin'."  
He waved at the bartender and ordered a brandy. He wasn't asked for identification, perhaps because of the small amount of facial hair that had grown during their adventures that made him look almost thirty. Jenny, on the other hand, had no useful aging features and decided to take a moment to decide before ordering. The bartender nodded understandingly and turned around to tend to other customers.  
"It's an awfully busy place, isn't it?" Jenny asked. No one replied and she turned to see that Roland had already struck up a conversation with the person next to him. She pulled her borrowed jacket tighter around her shoulders and looked to her right to see a bearded old Irishman there. She smiled nervously, and he smiled back.  
"I take it this is your first visit to a pub, lass?" he said.  
Jenny nodded, despite not knowing what the word 'lass' meant. The man nodded back understandingly, a gesture Jenny seemed to be getting a lot nowadays, and attempted to reassure her. "Well, it's nothin' to worry about, I assure you. Or has somethin' else got you upset?"  
"Something else," Jenny replied. She was concerned that she was so easy to read, for one thing, but mostly her father was on her mind. She was his daughter, and she was meant to travel with him, yet she could never find him at the right time. She was failing to fulfill the purpose she was intended for.  
"It's just that... I've been looking for my father," she began. She needed to talk it out, and Roland had already fixed his point of view. Before she knew it she had told the man almost the entire story of the past few weeks. Leaving out certain details such as time travel, of course. "I need to find him. If I don't, what am I supposed to do with my life?"  
The old man hummed in thought, mulling over the information carefully before replying. "You seem like a capable young woman. There are plenty of things you could do with your life and careers that you could work towards. Now, that's not to say that you should give up looking for your father. You could even choose a career that you think might cross his path one day. Just don't lose sight of yourself in your search to find him."  
"You mean, like travel? That's what he does."  
"Precisely," the old man smiled. "Now when you leave _The Cantina_-" He gestured to the sign above the bar. "-you take an empty beer bottle, and you write a message to your father. Legend says that if you put the message in the bottle and throw the bottle into the sea, it'll reach the person it was intended for."  
Jenny's eyes widened. Why hadn't anyone told her of this before? It seemed ridiculous to think that a message in the ocean could reach a man who traveled all of time and space, but it was certainly worth a try.  
She waved at the bartender and put her elbows on the bar. "Yes, I'd like a virgin beer," she said decisively. The man looked at her strangely before reaching under the counter and placing a bottle labeled 'root beer' in front of her.

It was windy on the beach, but Jenny was able to write the letter without too much trouble. She rolled it up and pushed it through the neck of the now-empty root beer bottle after reading it aloud for Roland to hear. The letter read thusly:

"_Hi, Dad._

_Yes, it's really me. Not dead._

_How come I'm alive? I don't know. I'm guessing the Source brought me back to life at the same time as Messaline. But they don't need me there, so here I am, out among the stars, having fun - planets to save, civilizations to rescue, creatures to defeat, and an awful lot of running to do! Is that how you started?_  
_ I've no idea how to contact you, but I met this guy in this cantina, and he told me how they used to put a message in a bottle and throw it out to sea. And the best bit is that somebody always found the bottle. So maybe, one day, you'll find this and come looking for me?_

_I'll try to make you proud of me._

_Love,_  
_ Jenny_"*

Roland smiled as she read the letter, apparently pleased by the wording. "Sounds like you've got your excitement to travel back," he said. "You won't be too disappointed if your father doesn't get the message, will you?"  
"He travels all of time and space," Jenny pointed out as she threw the bottle into the sea. She smiled and hopped in place slightly. "All of it. It's not _impossible _to think that he or someone he knows could find it. Just a bit _unlikely_."  
Roland offered Jenny his arm and began walking back to the shuttle. "Promise me you'll still have adventures of your own in the meantime. You're young; you need time to discover _you_. You don't have to be just 'the Doctor's daughter'. You're Jenny now, and you need to find out what that means."  
"That sounds nice," she replied with a grin. "I'm looking forward to it."  
Roland smiled down at her and wrapped one arm tightly around her shoulders. He opened the shuttle door and whispered, "Me too."

*This letter is an excerpt from "_The Doctor: His Lives and Times_" by James Goss and was not written by me. No copyright infringement is intended. All else is my original material.


End file.
